Many foods such as poultry, meat, fish and vegetables are coated with a light coating of flour or bread crumbs which on frying in oil develops into a characteristic crispy, brown-colored coating. However, the messiness involved with the preparation of fried foods, the ever-present danger of spattering oil, and the unfavorable dietary aspects associated with fried foods have led recently to the development of coatings which attempt to impart a fried appearance to a foodstuff which is baked and with the appealing color, taste, and texture associated with fried foods.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,586,512 by Mancuso et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,827 by Lee et al. both prepare a baked comestible with a fried texture and appearance. The Mancuso et al. patent does this by providing a dye system which changes color during cooking, while the Lee et al. patent provides a unique batter formulation and dry mix coating. While both these systems are effective, improvement would be desirable in the process of the Mancuso et al. patent in simulating the texture and mouthfeel characteristics of fried foods, while the Lee et al. patent has the drawback in that it requires a specific batter formulation, separate packaging for the batter formulation and dry mix coating, as well as relatively complicated consumer preparation.
Other coatings have been developed for foodstuffs for the same purpose, i.e., to provide a baked food with a surface similar in appearance, color and texture to that of coated, deepfat fried food, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,501 by Fazzina et al. However, this coating relies on high levels of shortening to obtain the desired results.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a baked coated comestible with the taste, texture and appearance of a fried coated comestible.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a dry coating composition which entails easy preparation for the consumer.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide an edible food coating in flowable form which may be readily applied to the comestible and does not have to be prepared in batter form.
Finally, it is an object of this invention to provide an edible food coating which will form a continuous crisp, pan fat fried-like coating when applied to comestibles followed by baking.